Six years after a 400 metre stretch of the Oldbridge Boardwalk was destroyed in an arson attack, funding of €340k has been approved to allow Meath County Council to repair the damage.
The gross act of vandalism happened Just as Drogheda was preparing for the first Fleadh Cheoil to be held in the town and it came as a massive blow to the efforts to show to a huge audience just what Drogheda has to offer.
It also inspired the Boyneside Trail Committee to organise a fundraising campaign to help with the repairs to the popular walkway which was estimated at the time to cost €170,000.
Such was the level of indignation and annoyance among the public at the wanton destruction, the campaign raised €10,091.11 in a little over a week and the money was presented to Meath County Council in September 2018.
Local TD, Fergus O’Dowd welcomed today’s news saying that it is something he has been campaigning on for a number of years.
“The Senior Engineer in Meath County Council confirmed to me this morning that this welcome funding has been approved to repair the fire damaged section of the greenway and will also fix the issues highlighted by the structural inspection carried out last June” he said.
“This has been a long time coming but the council finally undertook a full inspection last June which highlighted a number of defects on the greenway aside from the obvious damaged section.
O’Dowd added “This will no doubt greatly improve people’s experiences on the greenway and his follows the wonderful news from earlier this week that €10m of Government investment has been approved for the Oldbridge Visitor centre and site.”
See our previous report: Boyneside Trail Committee presents €10K to Council towards arson repair bill
